23 nov

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen assured Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that plans of the alliance to deploy Patriot air defense missiles in Turkey are of purely defensive.
Mr. Rasmussen and Mr. Lavrov had a phone conversation on Friday initiated by NATO chief.
A statement released by the Russian Foreign Ministry after the talks says that Mr. Lavrov expressed his concerns over NATO`s plans to place Patriot air missiles on the Turkish-Syrian border.
He mentioned Russia’s initiative to help Ankara and Damascus be able to discuss all differences directly amid the increasing military potential in the region in order to avoid incidents.

Completely unkown to the international public only a week ago, Sheikh Moaz al-Khatib has been catapulted to the presidency of the Syrian National Coalition, which represents pro-Western opposition in the Damascus government. Portrayed by an intense public relations campaign as a highly moral personality with no partisan or economic attachments, he is in truth a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and an executive of the Shell oil company.

Three weeks ago, 80% of the armed groups had attempted to form a command center near the city of Idlib in northwestern Syria. All participants had recognized Sheikh Adnan al-Arour as their spiritual leader and were given a sermon by him. Meanwhile, those commanders who disagreed with the Islamist line have been liquidated and only Salafist, Wahabi or Takfirists groups remain.
It is these groups that France has been secretly arming for months and now proposes to do so officially.

What is new is that there are just or still two districts of Aleppo (Halab), which are held by the rebel gangs. One of these districts is Sakhur in northeast of the city, the other district is not mentioned.
The implication is clear – the remaining gangs in Aleppo belong to the hardened and battle-hardened extremists, and thus, to the professional fighters, and Aleppo is surely not their first battlefield.

Russia and NATO will on Friday discuss Moscow’s opposition to the possible deployment of Patriot missiles near Turkey’s border with Syria, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
Lavrov reiterated Russia’s concerns about Turkey’s request for NATO to deploy the surface-to-air missiles because of Ankara’s fears of spillover from the civil war in Syria.
He said he would discuss the issue by telephone with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who said on Thursday the alliance would ”do what it takes to defend our ally Turkey”.
”Apparently he (Rasmussen) wants to explain (NATO’s) position on this issue,” Lavrov told a news conference after talks in Moscow with Bangladesh’s foreign minister, Dipu Moni.
”The main concern is the more weapons there are, the greater the risk that they will be used.”
He said Russia, which is not a member of NATO and cannot block a decision, understood that no one intended to drag the alliance into the Syrian crisis.
”But … in the military field, what is important is not intentions, but potential. And when potential increases, the risks grow,” he said